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I don't have any specific recommendations, but I found Venere.com to be very useful. Keep an eye on whether you will have air conditioning, it was brutally hot in Venice when we were there and our hotel claimed to have it but didn't.

The easiest thing to do is use the venere.com website or the booking.com website, where you can plug in your travel dates and budget and it will give you available hotel rooms for 4 people, plus you can read user reviews. You can then book through the website if you find something that works well for you.

I second his recommendation of air conditioning for both Venice and Rome. In Venice you need it for mosquito protection as well as heat. In Rome, it is so noisy, you'll want to shut the windows, but won't want to bake all night.

These three cities are notorious for their high prices, so I doubt that you will find something in your price range. From my report last summer:

The entry is quite grand, the elevator is the type that is seen in movies trying to have atmosphere, and the hotel something else. We obtained it through One Travel, and it is the second time that we’ve had bad luck with hotels obtained through brokers. The first time was last year, when the hotel in Naples could not be reached in any timely manner so that they return my mail to the sender so that he could obtain ticket refunds. We were shown a room by the clerk whose English was very limited. A room in an old building could have charm, but this one was redone with the least taste possible. The color of the walls were awful with Kinkadesque paintings hanging from them (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/5933076930/in/set-72157622915079327 ), the floor was either a very cheap and very thin wood veneer or a plastic to look like wood, coming unglued in some places. The furniture was haphazard, and there was a fifties kitchen sink in one corner. The bathroom was very narrow (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/5932519759/in/set-72157622915079327 ), and would have been OK if the shower had not been a cheap unit that did not even fill the width of the bathroom and did not allow us to bend down should the soap slip out of the hand (no soap dish). We have stayed in rooms with inexpensive furniture, and even places like the EasyHotel had more sense of style than this place. The bed was OK and the room seemed clean enough. Breakfast was around the corner in a café that offered rolls and pastries made with no animal fat. Our breakfast consisted of one coffee and a roll or pastry. We tried various pastries, and none of them were very good. The final straw is when they asked us to move to another hotel for the final night, alleging some plumbing problems. We asked to see the room, and they took us to a standard hotel going toward the Campo de’ Fiori which looked quite nice in the lobby. Another guest was there and said that the rooms were fine. We asked to see our room, but that was impossible because it was currently occupied. We asked to see a similar room, but that was impossible because the room was not in the hotel proper but had direct access to the street around the corner. We said no and heard nothing more about it. For this hotel we paid $515 for four nights.

A reply to my report said that I should not complain given the good price I got for the room.

I'm sorry - but I don;t think your budget is realistic - esp for Switz - which is probably the most expensive country in europe. (The mcdonalds meal that is $8 in the US is aout $18 in Switz - and everythng else is priced accrodingly.)

I doubt you could get a hotel room for 4 in NYC for that prices - and Swtiz is WAY more expensive. (The last time I was there I paid almost $50 for a short cab ride from the airport - that would have been $15 or so in NY. My hotel room - a small room with one bed in a basic airport hotel was more than $300 per night.)

Prices in Italy are somewhat less - but a central location with AC - I think you won;t get an extra larger room for 4 people for that price. Besides venere yuo might look at eurocheapo.com or kayak.com. But I'm not sanguine.

So sorry, that price of single room at Pension St. Josef was WRONG. Just found my Swiss travel memos.

My single room was $190 US per night.

So, sweetie darling, don't know how you are going to get a quad for $150.

Pension St. Josef is one to the cheapest hotels in Zurich.

There is a cheap Best Western in the Old Town of Zurich. You can try that one. I will see if I can find it for you when I have a chance. But, I am almost postive that our Famous Fodorite Friend, Faina Again, stayed at Best Western hotel.

In Venice and Rome you could try monasteries/convents. Here's a place to get started: www.monasterystays.com. Or search through old messages on this site for monastery/convent recommendations. Another possibility is hostels; the often have some private rooms.